Prosecutor appeals to file case against Trump for Mar-a-Lago papers USA Elections

The Mar-a-Lago Papers case is not over. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has decided to appeal the judge’s decision to archive and close the process in which former President Donald Trump is accused of having confidential documents that he took to his mansion in Palm Beach (Florida) and kept there after leaving the presidency. This is what Smith has told …

The Mar-a-Lago Papers case is not over. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has decided to appeal the judge’s decision to archive and close the process in which former President Donald Trump is accused of having confidential documents that he took to his mansion in Palm Beach (Florida) and kept there after leaving the presidency. This was reported by Smith in a document registered this Wednesday before the Florida court in charge of the case. Now it will be a higher federal court that will decide. Ultimately, the decision could reach the Supreme Court with a conservative majority, which has favored Trump in several of its decisions.

“The United States gives notice that it intends to appeal the District Court’s order, Record 672, issued on July 15, 2024, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit,” the document briefly states. The appeal’s contents, along with legal arguments asking the court to overturn the decision of federal judge Eileen Cannon, appointed by Donald Trump, are not yet available. Higher courts have overruled the judge’s previous rulings, which have almost always ruled in favor of the former president, delaying the case indefinitely until it is concluded.

In a stunning 93-page ruling, the judge concluded that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution because he was not appointed by the president (but rather by the attorney general) or confirmed by the Senate. The prosecutor’s office had denied the thesis that the appointment was flawed during a hearing before the court last month. This decision breaks all previous precedents in this regard, which have defended the legitimacy of appointments of special prosecutors by the Justice Department without going through the Senate. In addition, the prosecutors argued that even if the judge ruled in favor of Trump with regard to the formal flaw in the appointment, the proper response would not be to dismiss the entire proceedings, as they decided.

“The Constitution’s framers gave Congress a vital role in appointing top and bottom officials. That role cannot be usurped by the executive branch or blurred elsewhere, whether in this case or any other, whether or not in a time of greatest national need,” the judge’s proposal states.

The Mar-a-Lago classified papers case came to light with the search of Trump’s mansion in Palm Beach (Florida) by FBI agents on August 8, 2022. In June of the following year, dozens were formally charged with crimes: conspiracy, obstruction of justice, deliberate retention of national security documents, perjury and violation of the Espionage Act. Like any US president’s leaving office papers, the papers also fall under the National Archives by law, but in addition, since they contain sensitive information to defend, keeping them could be a crime. Trump is also accused of refusing to turn them over when officials repeatedly asked him to do so. These resistances led to the aforementioned registry.

At the beginning of the case, the same judge ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to halt their investigative work with all documents found in a search of the Mar-a-Lago mansion while a special expert reviewed them. The appeals court unblocked the investigation with a ruling that was a legal setback for both the judge and Trump’s lawyers. Since then, Cannon has sided with the former president in more rulings. The delay in the case will prevent it from being heard before the November 5 election.

Even if the jurors conclude that the judge’s decision to dismiss the case does not comply with the law and quash the case file, Trump can have the charges dropped if he is re-elected president. Trump is set to be formally nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president at this week’s convention in Milwaukee.

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